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Guide:Writing system: Difference between revisions
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EmperorZelos (talk | contribs) (Created page with "So you've decieded you want to make a script for your conlang. You probably want to do it because you've seen other languages have their writings or maybe you just want to be ...") |
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But even that is not alone, grammatical structure does play a role aswell. Languages like chinese can avoid a more phoneticly based writing system because they technicly lack conjugations, declensions and the like directly on the word add words around to change meaning. So the words needs no more marking once they have been written out. A language like japanese which do conjugate their verbs is a whole other story. they MUST mark it in writing to give the right information. "But japanese uses Kanji which is chinese!" you probably say, yes they do. That is a result due to history but japanese have Hirigana and Katakana also, those are syllabic in structure, a much better fit for japanese syllable structure, to mark just phoneticly the endings verbs take. | But even that is not alone, grammatical structure does play a role aswell. Languages like chinese can avoid a more phoneticly based writing system because they technicly lack conjugations, declensions and the like directly on the word add words around to change meaning. So the words needs no more marking once they have been written out. A language like japanese which do conjugate their verbs is a whole other story. they MUST mark it in writing to give the right information. "But japanese uses Kanji which is chinese!" you probably say, yes they do. That is a result due to history but japanese have Hirigana and Katakana also, those are syllabic in structure, a much better fit for japanese syllable structure, to mark just phoneticly the endings verbs take. | ||
==Script Types== | |||
Thought it was over eh? OH NO! | |||
You have already been presented somewhat to a few types but here I'll go into the writing types of the world and their implications and needs. | |||
A feature most languages eventually tend toward is a phonetic representation but that can be divided into two categories, Syllable or Phonemic. | |||
===Syllable=== | |||
These scrips writes out entire syllables, more or less, of the language in a distinct grapheme. There are two of these. | |||
====Logographic==== | |||
This script usually encompasses larger form of syllables, roughly around CVC structure and not larger. The script usually have a few hundred to several thousand symboles that must be memorized. It can be quite structured at first but like all systems the langauge changes and soon it is just a question of memorizing everything. This system fits languages with a smaller consonant inventory and simple syllable structure like the previously mentioned one. Chinese is an example. | |||
*Grapheme count: Few hundred to thousands | |||
*Phoneme count: Small | |||
====Syllabic==== | |||
As the name suggest it goes for syllables but generally only CV form, if the langauge has such syllable structure (or close like only a single consonant can appear after) this system is quite useful. and important thing to remember with this system is that the grapheme for "pa", "pe" and "da" are all unrelated, you cannot see any connection between them. The phoneme inventory can be medium sized and it is quite feasable. | |||
*Grapheme count: 30-100 | |||
*Phoneme count: medium | |||
===Phonemic== | |||
[[Category:Script]] | [[Category:Script]] | ||